Surviving Saddam

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 17 August 2020

⏱️ 10 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Zainab Salbi grew up in the inner social circle of the Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein, in the 1980s because her father worked as Saddam’s personal pilot. It was a world of apparently glamorous parties on the River Tigris, but where the slightest falling-out with the dictator could lead to execution. After years of psychological pressure, Zainab’s family got her out of Saddam’s Iraq by setting up an arranged marriage for her in the US. She tells her story to Susan Hulme.

PHOTO: Zainab Salbi as a teenager with Saddam Hussein (private collection)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know.
0:04.7	My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds.
0:08.5	As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices.
0:18.0	What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars,
0:24.6	poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples.
0:29.7	If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC
0:35.4	Sounds.
0:36.4	Hello and thank you for downloading the podcast of Witness History from the BBC World Service
0:46.1	with me Susan Hume. Today I'm bringing you the remarkable story of a younger
0:50.8	rookie woman growing up in a family close to the dictator Saddam Hussein.
0:57.0	Baghdad in the 1970s and a glamorous young couple are being wooed to become
1:06.3	members of the inner social circle of the then Iraqi Vice President Saddam
1:11.7	Hussein. There was a party with a whole group of friends, a boat party by the Tigros River.
1:21.8	They stopped by at an island to do barbecues and they're all in their bathing suits and all and they see this man in the island waiting for them.
1:32.0	Zene of Salby is that young couple's daughter.
1:35.0	He's wearing white suit, white pants, white shirt, white shoes, white socks, everything white,
1:41.0	and the island was set up with chefs and all of that and my
1:46.4	mom always talk about asking her friends like who's this guy and someone
1:50.8	whispered is Saddam Hussein and he's a vice president.
1:54.1	And anyway, they get off the boat.
1:56.4	These are people who have nothing to do with politics and it was very, he had organized it
2:01.6	because he wanted to meet the sort of the social light I guess of
	...

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